MEDINA CASE Lawyer alleges conspiracy

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 17

MEDINA CASE Lawyer alleges conspiracy

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copuriaht)

ATLANTA (Georgia), June 18. Five United States Army officers lave been issued with subpoenas to ippear at a special hearing to determine whether they conspired illegally to bring My Lai massacre charges against Captain Ernest Medina.

The hearing has been ordered by the trial judge, Colonel Kenneth Howard, for Monday and Tuesday, at Fort McPherson.

Yesterday, Medina’s lawyer, Mr Lee Bailey, presented 17 motions to dismiss the charges, one alleging that the officers involved in bringing Medina to trial did so for reasons other than believing him guilty; that one reason was that they wanted to placate public opinion. Among the five officers implicated in the alleged conspiracy is Lieutenant-General Albert Connor, Commanding General, Third U.S. Army. Sergeant Charles Lacroix, a member of Medina’s company at My Lai, and Captain Aubrey Daniel, who prosecuted William Calley, the lieutenant sentenced to life Imprisonment for his role at My Lai, have also been summoned on subpoena. Mr Bailey alleges that three senior officers told Sergeant Lacroix that he would be prosecuted on murder harges if he gave evidence on Medina’s behalf. Mr. Bailey identified the three as MajorGeneral Bernard Rogers and Colonels Robert Miller and William Wilson, who were members of the Army commission that investigated the massacre. , Medina, who is 34, is

charged with the responsibility for the deaths of 102 villagers on March 16, 1968. If brought to trial and convicted, he could be sentenced to death.